


Comfort

by twilightshards



Series: Oz drabbles [3]
Category: Oz (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-03 00:45:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11520984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilightshards/pseuds/twilightshards
Summary: Rosalie Schibetta worries.





	Comfort

**3.**

When her husband had been sentenced to prison, Rosalie Schibetta had made an important decision: she would stand by him no matter what. It wasn't easy. She's known other women with husbands and boyfriends in prison and most of them hadn't lasted. Rosalie was determined to be different, though. With any luck, Peter would be out after 20 years and it wouldn't be too late then for them to have a life together. They were young, after all.

When her weekly visitation is canceled for the first time, she immediately worries. She calls the prison and with some pressing she finds out that Peter is in the medical ward, but they won't tell her why, just that he's going to be fine. She paces around at home for hours, waiting for someone to call her and tell her what is going on, but no one ever does.

She calls again the next day. This time she is told he is in the psych ward. They won't tell her more than that. She is told Peter will call her when he is feeling up for it.

Rosalie knows that Peter is sensitive. He'd never want anyone to know that, but he's always felt more comfortable showing his softer sides around her. He'd been stony-faced and serious at his mother's funeral, but afterwards, when it was just the two of them, he had cried in Rosalie's arms. It had been the same after his father had died.

Oh, Rosalie had cursed Nino Schibetta's name in her thoughts so many times. The man was the reason Peter was in prison. He never would've joined the Family if not for his father's insistence, if not because Peter had been so desperate to make the old man proud.

Weeks pass, then months, then _years_. Rosalie calls every week for over 3 years to inquire about Peter. Most of the staff at the prison know her by name now. She always recieves the same answer, that Peter is still in the psych ward and that he's not ready to talk to her yet. It's agony. Rosalie's mother tells her that she shouldn't waste her time on a basket case, but Rosalie doesn't listen. Her mother had never approved of their marriage in the first place.

Finally, one day she receives the call she's waited for. Peter's psychologist informs her that Peter is finally ready to see her. She's told that he may not be ready to talk about what's happened, and Rosalie can accept that. She knows her husband better than anyone, after all, and she knows that he will tell her everything as soon as he is ready.

He looks different when she sees him step into the visitation room. His hair is longer and he seems to have lost weight, but that's not what she notices first. It's the haunted look in his eyes, like he's been to hell and only just came back. Rosalie stands and immediately embraces him. She tries not to cry as she feels his arms around her middle, his warm hands on her back and his face pressing against her shoulder.

"Tell me when you're ready," she murmurs against his ear, "Nothing you say is gonna make me leave."

His arms tighten around her and she knows that he believes her.

 


End file.
